Reviews
SMALL PRESS
The Magazine of Independent Publishing
by C. N. Hetzner
Fall 1994
In its premiere issue Rosebud's best feature may be Dierdre Luzwick's graphics. Her drawings are filled with fine detail and a thundering silence. The characters seem lost in reverie, unaware of the people and things which surround them. Publisher John Lehman, who doubles as the originator of the Writer In You seminars (a full spread ad reassures that an inquiry about the two-day seminar will not cause a salesperson to call), and editor Rod Clark seem very aware of what is going on around them. Luzwick's graphics, heavy stock paper, a drop dead gorgeous table of contents ordering the offerings into poetic categories such as "Mothers, Daughters, Wives," "En Route," and "City and Shadow," make Rosebud a classy looking journal. This well-executed shell surrounds writing which should appeal to the happy and whole of heart. Michael Miller's "The Art of Flying" blends small town adventure and wistful evocation of youth's lost daredevilry in a tale of a small child being lashed to a sinewy "rubber band" tree before being catapaulted over the treetops to a lake landing sixty feet away. Dorothy Kruse writes of local Wisconsin skunk hunting legend George Ruegger in "A Man of His Time" -- given Kruse's several apologies, skunk hunting must not be PC in WI anymore. Melvin Fiorentino recollects the excitement of December while growing up with his Jewish mother and Italian Catholic father. Mr. Fiorentino is kind enough to pass on his father's recipe for ricotta cheeseballs and an improved version of his mother's latkes. Rosebud is for those who never missed the urban romance of crushing a crack vial under heel nor spending Sunday morning trying to follow the latest shenanigans of the Serbs and Croats.
© 1994 Small Press